Sidelined
by Antigone.Rose
Summary: In which Special Agent Lincoln Lee is forced to take a few days off. Takes place after "Alone in the World" through "Subject 9."


_A/N: So...Lincoln wasn't in Subject 9. I'm not complaining (well, maybe a little), as it was a fantastic episode. But, I wondered why so I came up with my own little explanation. Here you go. _

_Disclaimer: Nope. _

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><p>Special Agent Lincoln Lee was having a nightmare.<p>

It was the worst kind, the kind when he knew that he was dreaming, but was unable to wake up. In his dream, he was running. There were terrible, awful things chasing after him. Shape-shifters with transparent skin and his old partner's face, fungus that could talk and hundreds of other terrible, disturbing things. As much as he had assured Olivia to the contrary, finding out about all of these _things_ had freaked him out.

He ran faster and faster, but the nasty shadowy shapes were gaining on him…They were inches from him, their collective hot breath on his neck..."Agent Lee?"

He awoke with a panicky gasp. "God!" He shouted, blinking rapidly. "Dunham? Is that you?" He was still seeing fungus oozing from every corner, blurred by his lack of glasses…

"Yeah, it's me." A blonde blur appeared in his line of vision. "Are you okay?"

Lincoln shook his head, trying to clear it. "Nightmare." He was still panting a bit, his heartbeat loud in his ears.

"What about?" Olivia's voice was worried.

"I…I don't remember." He lied. He didn't want her to see how much their last mission had freaked him out. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down.

"Hmmm." He could tell that she didn't believe him, but she didn't press it. "Other than that, how're you holding up?"

He squinted at her, trying to see. "Pretty awesome considering that a giant fungus-brain named Gus tried to off me a few hours ago." He quipped at her, feeling around of his glasses on the nightstand beside his hospital bed. "Have you seen…?" He began to ask, but she slipped the thick-rimmed glasses out of her jacket pocket.

"Looking for these?" She asked, handing them to him.

"Thanks." He shoved them on. He blinked and the room came into focus. Olivia looked tired, dark circles gathering under her green eyes. "So," He pushed himself up farther on his pillows. "Have you talked to the doctors?"

She nodded. "Am I going to make it?" He prompted her.

"Looks that way." She smiled at him. He smiled back.

"I guess you're stuck with me, then." He told her, allowing himself to sink back in bed a little. He felt drowsy and curiously dizzy. He couldn't tell if it was the aftereffects of the toxin Gus had tried to kill him with or something else. "Do you know if they gave me anything?" He asked Olivia, adjusting his glasses. "I feel weird."

"I think so." She glanced at the IV drip. He looked down at his arm and was vaguely surprised to see the needle there. "You've been out for a while, so it should probably be wearing off soon."

"How long?" He blinked. He'd assumed that he'd been out for an hour, maybe two.

"Um…" She slipped her phone out of her pocket and glanced at it. "About ten hours."

"Seriously?"He tried to get his own phone, but realized that, under the blankets, he was only wearing a hospital gown. "D'you have my…?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled his phone out of her pocket. "Here." She handed it to him. "I've got your clothes too, but I don't think you'll want those back."

"Why not?" He was scrolling through his phone. She was right, he had been out for more than ten hours. It was nearly three in the morning.

"They've got fungus on them." She gave him an odd look somewhere between a grimace and a smile.

"You mean Gus." He said offhandedly without looking up from his phone.

"What?" She stared at him.

"Oh," He looked up at her. "I had _Gus_ on my clothes. He's not just any fungus, Olivia."

She just stared at him, stone-faced, for about four seconds before she stared laughing. He had never seen her laugh before, let alone smile all that much. He was once again struck by how secretly-pretty she was. Maybe it was the pain medicine that they'd given him, but he found himself staring fixedly at her with his mouth a little bit open before he started laughing too.

"Oh, Gus…" Olivia smiled, finally descending back into serious-Olivia mode. "I can't believe Walter named a _fungus_ Gus…"

"He is a little out there." Lincoln agreed, letting out a sigh. They were both silent for a minute. "I can't even imagine what the case file for this one…God, we'll have to start on that tomorrow, won't we?"

"No." Olivia looked over at him. "They're keeping you here for the rest of the week. _I'll_ have to start on it tomorrow."

"What?" He sat up some more. "I'm fine!" He close to shouted.

"Lincoln…" She put a hand on the edge of his bed and he felt that little rush of satisfaction like he always did when she called him Lincoln. "You said it yourself…a _fungus_ tried to kill you. The best FBI agent would still need some time off after something like that."

"Well, I am the best." He muttered, feeling distinctly smarmy. "And I don't see you running to take time off, Olivia."

She smiled tiredly at him. "When you've been at the Fringe division as long as me…" She shrugged. "It's the sort of thing you get used too."

"I know." He gave her a sidelong glance. "I read the case files, remember?"

"Yes, Lincoln." She sighed, rubbing her eyes. "I remember."

A moment later, a voice penetrated the quiet in the room. "Miss Dunham?" A figure had appeared in the doorway. It was a nurse, dressed in blue scrubs. "I'm sorry, but you're going to have to go. Agent Lee needs to rest."

"I'm _fine_." He muttered mutinously and both women gave him fierce looks, as if to say _no you're not_!

"We agreed to let you stay here past visiting hours under the condition that you would't disturb Agent Lee or any of the other patients, Miss Dunham." The nurse went on, oblivious to the stormy cast the Olivia's eyes had taken.

"It's Agent Dunham, actually." Olivia's voice was demeaning. Lincoln fought a shiver. She was scary when she wanted to be. "Agent Lee is my partner."

That threw Lincoln for a bit of a loop. Sure, they'd been working together for a case or two now, but…being _partners_ was a big responsibility, a scary-sounding commitment not only to her, but to the Fringe division in general.

"Oh." The nurse looked scared. "I'll just…I'll just go then." She looked at Lincoln. "Try to get some rest, Agent Lee. You've been through a lot." She left the room as quickly as she could without actually running.

"You better run." Lincoln mumbled, earning him a glare from Olivia. She really did look exhausted. "Have you been home yet?" He asked her. He was no expert when it came to women's clothing, but he was pretty sure she was wearing the same thing that she had been when they were fungus-hunting. She didn't answer and that was his answer. "Seriously, Olivia, you didn't have to stay with me."

"Yes I did." She told him and her voice was so ceritan that he didn't dare to contradict her. They were both silent for a moment, the only sound Lincoln's steady heartbeat on the heart monitor. "We're partners now, Lincoln." She didn't look at him.

"I know." He said, looking at her profile. She was extraordinary, really she was. After reading case file after case file about the cases she'd worked and solved, she was still a mystery. Some of the things that she'd done…they were unbelievable. He never would have been able to tell by just looking at her. She was strong, guarded. She didn't blink.

"You would have stayed with Robert, right?" She looked over at him with those piercing green eyes. He nodded, fighting the sorrow that he alway felt when he thought of his former partner. He knew she understood. According to a case file he'd read, she'd lost a partner to shape shifters too.

"Thanks, then." He told her, feeling a little strange. "I'd have stayed for you too, if that helps."

She smiled at him tiredly. "It does." There was another awkwardly long and silent pause. "So," She glanced at the TV, "How about a movie?"

"As you wish, Agent Dunham." She gave him another funny look as he grabbed the remote and started to flip through channels. He knew that he was being less subdued than he was at work, more quippy and less serious. He suspected that most of it was because of the pain medicine.

"Wait, stop!" She pulled the remote away from him and smiled at the TV.

"Why?" Lincoln glanced up at the TV and laughed. "_Little Shop of Horrors_." He said appreciatively. "If only the plant was named Gus."

Olivia laughed too and Lincoln felt inordinately proud of himself. It was a rare man who could make Olivia Dunham laugh once, let alone twice in the same ten minutes. "It's perfect, right?" She leaned back in her chair and, for one pain-medicine-induced moment, Lincoln considered offering to let her join him on the bed. There was no way her chair could be comfortable. But, that would make things very, very awkward between them very, very quickly.

Instead, he just agreed. "It's perfect." He let himself relax and watch the movie, occasionally muttering sarcastic things at the characters. Sometimes, Olivia would laugh and join in, but mostly she stayed quiet. About halfway through the movie, she fell asleep, curled up in her chair.

Lincoln held out until the end, feeling himself drift off as the credits started to roll.

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><p>"Are you sure you don't need my help?" Lincoln was talking on his phone and pacing around his hospital room. He'd been there for four days and he couldn't keep still, much to the chagrin of his doctors. No matter how often he insisted that he was fine, they still eyed him like he was about to keel over and die. It wasn't every day that they got a patient who'd almost been killed by sentient fungus.<p>

"It'll be okay, Lincoln." Olivia's voice was comforting to hear, despite the vein of uneasiness that was running through it right now. "Astrid and I can handle it. You just get some rest."

"I'm fine!" He stopped pacing and sat down on the edge of his bed. After a day and a half of arguments with the doctors and nurses, he'd managed to commandeer a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Pacing in a hospital gown had been uncomfortable to say the least. "It's you I'm worried about."

"Come on, Lincoln." Her voice was patronizing. "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

"There's a blue zappy energy-thing following you around and you're not worried?" He was annoyed. She never seemed to take her own safety seriously. "Come on, Olivia. I'm your partner, it's my job to have your back."

"Lincoln, you're in the hospital for a reason." She sounded stern.

"You sound like the nurses." He muttered, playing with the edge of the blanket on his bed.

"Have you been harassing the nurses again?" She sounded equally exasperated and amused. "You know, Broyles wasn't exactly happy when you called him and demanded that he make the hospital give you a pair of pants."

"Hey!" He admonished her. "I almost died to kill an evil fungus bent on destroying the world. I deserve pants."

"As you told the hospital staff." She observed dryly.

"They're all evil." He muttered. "I think the hospital staff is from the Other Side."

"And I think you've been overdoing it on pain medicine again." She told him. "And not that this hasn't been lovely, but I do have actual work to do, Lincoln."

"Sure you do." He sighed. "Make sure you keep me informed about the energy thing, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." She agreed without a fight and he was pleased with himself. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay."He nodded, forgetting she couldn't see him.

"Bye Lincoln." She told him.

"Bye." He hung up, collapsing back on the bed. Not being able to help was getting annoying.

"Agent Lee!" A nurse in pink scrubs rocketed into the room. "Agent Lee, can you hear me?"

"Uh, yeah?" He glanced over at her, not bothering to sit up. "What is it?"

"I saw you fall over!" She reached for him, checking his pulse and poking and prodding him. "Are you dizzy? Naseaous? Having hallucinations?"

"Look, I'm fine." He assured her, sitting up and waving her away. "If I was dying, I'd let you know."

"Agent Lee," She frowned at him. "You were exposed to a highly toxic and dangerous…"

"Form of fungus and I'm lucky to be alive, I know." He finished her sentence for her, having her the same speech from about twelve other nurses. "Now can I please eat my jello in peace?"

She eyed him doubtfully. "If you have any symptoms…"

"Call, I know." He shook his head. She left and he grabbed one of the multicolored jellos off the table next to him. He started to eat it with more force than was strictly required for eating jello, still feeling annoyed and all together useless.

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><p>"Apparently, he knows things about Fringe division." Olivia was pacing and Lincoln was watching. "Classified things…things that not very many people have the clearance to know."<p>

"And he just appeared out of nowhere?" Lincoln was frowning. Olivia had offered to drive him home. After a week of being throughly annoyed with the hospital staff, he was finally being released. And, by the sound of the man they'd found in the lake, it seemed like it was just in time.

"That's what they're telling me." She glanced down at her phone. "Broyles wants me to drive to New York tonight and interrogate him."

"Why you?" Lincoln got up off his bed and started gathering his possessions from around the room. There weren't all that many. A few get well cards from his family and one from Robert's widow and children, but that was about it. His phone was in his pocket and his glasses were perched on his nose. "There's got to be other agents there who could do it."

Olivia glanced at him and he was struck at how pale her face was. She looked almost…scared. "He's asking for me. By name."

"What?" Lincoln grabbed his wallet off the bedside table.

"I don't know." Olivia sat down on the foot of the hospital bed. Looking down at her was odd. She always seems to be the one with the authority and the answers. "I've never met him, obviously. Broyles said that he wants to speak with me."

"Well, that's not a good idea." He ran a hand through his hair.

"What else can we do, Lincoln?" She tilted her head to the side and, for a moment, it almost seemed like she was actually asking him for an answer. "He could pose a significant security threat."

"Could he be from the Other Side?" He asked.

"He could be." She admitted. "We don't know enough to rule anything out yet."

"Okay." He was thinking hard. "Okay…take me with you."

"What?" She looked confused.

"Take me with you to New York." He repeated, hands in his sweatpants pockets. "If this guy really is as big of a security threat as you say, Broyles will probably have me drive up there tomorrow anyway. Just stop by my apartment for five minutes so I can get some clothes and we can go."

"Lincoln…"She slipped off the edge of the bed and stood few feet from him. He was taller than her, just by a few inches. "I can't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking." He started to move past her towards the door. "I'm offering. Now let's go."

"Lincoln…" She said again, reaching out an arm to stop his exit from the hospital room.

"Come on." He ducked under her arm and out into the hallway. "We're wasting time, Olivia."

She gave him a wan smile and rolled her eyes, following him past the nurse's station and towards the elevator.

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><p><em>AN: Okay. Review and all that jazz. _

_Oh, and P.S. who hates baseball right about now? Cause I am very much a baseball hater since last Friday. _


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